Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) have, in all their forms, saddled the Scottish public sector with high levels of debt, poor service provision, lack of accountability and unsafe buildings.
Scotland needs a financing model which has safety and quality at its heart. A model which puts accountability to the taxpayer before the interests of Big Business. Scotland needs a Local National Partnership model - it will be a financing scheme tailored for and by Scotland. In its essence the Local National Partnership model is a simple solution to a complex problem. It allows Local Authorities to take back control, and the National level to play an active role in creating a better reality for the Scottish people.
The key is political will to prioritize transparency, quality and safety. We need a change of attitude towards public projects – and for both local and national actors to realise that private financing is not the only, nor the best way. Once we have removed the harmful PPP schemes in Scotland, we need to turn our attention to the international context of the PPP problem. The UK government is playing an active role in promoting PPPs to developing countries as a means of financing and managing infrastructure. PPPs are now thoroughly embedded in development strategies and the UK’s Department for International Development uses money from its aid budget to fund the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) which exists to promote PPPs to finance infrastructure in developing countries.(91) Additionally, the UK has “trained over 600 overseas officials from 50 countries on PPPs and infrastructure”.(92) At both the UN and the Bretton Woods Institutions, the PPP model is being held up as a method of mobilising private capital in support of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).(93)
However, the more governments pay private firms, the less they spend on essential services. Furthermore, PPPs limit access to services because they “often come with new or increased fees for users of services”(94) as we have seen in Tanzania, where the high costs of PPPs in the country’s electricity system were pushed onto consumers in a way which saw energy tariffs increase by 40 percent in a year.(95) Additionally, as illustrated in this report, these models in their different forms will contribute to the accumulation of debt in the poorest countries in the world. Debt which could have been avoided.
Scotland must take upon itself to promote more responsible lending and borrowing practices. We need to take action now. We need to rethink financing of public projects in Scotland - find a solution which serves the public - and then export that to countries around the world.